The motor vehicle code in many states has been amended in recent years to require that all children under specified weights be securely fastened in an appropriate child safety seat while riding in a vehicle. Recent amendments also prohibit children from riding in the front passenger seat of a vehicle with an automatic air bag that is not disabled. These laws, plus the general concern of a parent or caretaker for the child's safety, have resulted in a need for the parent or caretaker to awkwardly lift the child while trying to reach into the vehicle to guide the child into or out of the seat. This is particularly a problem if the vehicle does not have rear doors.
Some commercially-available child safety seats include a reclining mechanism which allows the seat to be adjusted to keep the child in a comfortable position when he or she falls asleep while in the seat. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,331 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,960. While these reclining seats may make it somewhat easier to insert the child into or remove the child from the seat, the adult must still approach the seat from an awkward angle that risks bumping the child into some part of the vehicle interior and/or back strain for the adult who is simultaneously bending, stretching and lifting a child weighing as much as 40 or 50 pounds.
Accordingly, the needs still remains for a child safety seat which is moveable to facilitate positioning the child in the seat and removing the child from the seat. The present invention is directed to such a seat.